Monday, March 20, 2006

You Are What You Post

Have you ever regretted a comment you posted to someone's blog? Do you wish you could erase your posts from that alt.anarchism discussion way back in 1992? According to You Are What You Post, you should be concerned:
... because today there are two of you. There's the analog, warm-blooded version ... Then there's the online you, your digital doppelganger; that's the one that is growing larger and more impossible to control every day.

And:
Googling people is also becoming a way for bosses and headhunters to do continuous and stealthy background checks on employees, no disclosure required.

This is a good reminder to be careful what you say on the Net and how you say it. I am not advocating self-censorship, but it's worth looking down the road before you post. Are you sure you won't regret your words five years from now?
 

4 comments:

Pete Lyons said...

True but the lack of a digital presence will also be cause for alarm. Does the person not have any idea? Do they not care to about their craft? Are they so shallow they don't have a personal life? It's a new time with new rules.

Bob said...

Hmm. Let's see. My Usenet posts from 1992 were pretty geeky (for example see here). Pegs me as a geek for sure.

Some massive percentage of teens now have MySpace.com accounts. It'll be interesting to see whether something rude, inflamamatory or indecent that was said by some 15 year-old comes back to bite him/her years later.

Maureen said...

Yes, I wonder how many college admissions officers will start scanning for the mySpace pages of their applicants. I've been wondering what to say to my kids about that....

Dave Delay said...

I agree with Pete. It can be important to have a digital presence these days. And you can certainly be too cautious about what you say.

My warning was directed more at the MySpace crowd and others who may not be aware just how indelible their digital presence is -- not that they're reading my blog, or would pay attention if they did ...